A few years ago, Mitch and I were walking down Geary Street and I spotted a painting in one of the gallery windows that I absolutely fell in love with. It was a portrait of a monkey in a lovely party dress that was just about to get beaned in the noggin by an olive by Donald Roller Wilson. We walked by that painting many times, and each time we stopped to admire it. One day, we decided to go in to the gallery an inquire about the price of the painting. We figured if it was at price point we felt we could afford, we’d buy it. At the time, we knew nothing about the artist. When the gallery worker told us the price ($15,000!), we told him we’d think about it and we high-tailed it out of there.

I still think about that painting every now and then because it makes me laugh.

Sometimes, you just gotta love China and their complete disregard for copyrighted material and eBay for making distribution easy. Check these out!

This is the reproduction of the painting I have coveted for many, many years. I just might have to buy it.*

*Still trying to sort through the ethical implications of supporting someone who blatantly stole someone else’s work and whether I can live with it.

My mom came to town for a visit today. We loaded Izzy up in the stroller and walked down to The Crepe House for breakfast. We both had the Crab Cake Florentine. YUM!

It was a really warm day today, so I didn’t want to stay cooped up in the hot apartment. We took another walk up to the post office to drop off a package. On our way back home, we stopped off at Dolce Gelato for a snack. My mom got the Coconut Macadamia Nut and I got the Peanut Butter Cioccolati. Delicious.

Isadora was great all day long–taking in the sites between naps while we walked around the neighborhood.

It was still too warm to sit in the apartment so we hung out in our courtyard for a little while before my mom had to drive back home.

Izzy has already received a couple of letters and cards in the mail. She received an email note (via my email address) too. The notes have been awesome–wonderful sentiments welcoming her in to the world. I thought it might be fun to set up an email account for her so you can write to her whenever the mood strikes. As soon as she’s old enough to read, she’ll be able to go through all of your correspondence and find out what you were thinking about when she was just a few weeks old. If you would like to write an email note to Izzy, please send it to isadora.harris [at] gmail [dot] com.* Of course, you can still send her handwritten notes (which are totally awesome BTW) to our home address.

*I wrote her email address like this in an attempt to thwart spambots. Replace [at] with @ and [dot] with .

Er…more like moving on over since we’re already on the top floor. We finally got word that we can have the two bedroom apartment down the hall. It has been painted, and they’re working on some renovations in the kitchen and bathroom. We’re also going to get a full-sized refrigerator to be placed in the giant pantry (Curses to the mini fridge we’ve been using for years).

Our building caretaker is currently on his annual month-long vacation to St. Petersburg, so most of the work has come to a halt during his absence. As soon as Andrei is back, he’ll finish up the work, and we should be able to move in late this month or early next month.

We’re so excited to have more space! We have fantasized about living in that apartment for years because it is the best two bedroom in our building. It is the only other apartment we ever could have considered living in because we currently live in the best one bedroom apartment in our building.

I would like to get in there and measure the rooms so I can draw the layout and figure out how I’m going to place our current furniture. I have also been doing some browsing online and found a few things that I want to purchase. I am just dying to nest!

I already purchased this Dutailier glider/recliner, but it hasn’t been delivered yet.

I don’t think our kitchen renovations are going to include a dishwasher. If not, I want to get this portable Whirlpool:

I picked this model over the Kenmore because the Whirlpool model has a locking system so it can’t be opened easily once it’s started and it has a food disposal system. It also has a butcher block counter top that will come in so very handy in my kitchen as it lacks counter space. It will be such a relief to not have to do dishes by hand any longer.

I like it because it converts into a full sized bed. When we have guests, they can sleep on the fold out couch and Izzy can sleep in our room. It’s on sale right now, and it looks like they’re already out of the brown and black versions, which is fine by me because I did want the colorful striped version. I think the color scheme will go great with the painting that Dan gave us for Izzy’s room. I just can’t order it now since we don’t know when we’re moving in. I can’t have it arrive and try to cram it in to our current place. That just won’t do. I’m keeping my fingers crossed it will still be available when I have a place to put it.

The last piece of furniture I want to get is a dining room table. I am so excited that we’ll have room for a table. We have been eating our meals on the couch or at our desks because those are the only spaces available in our current place. I still haven’t found exactly what I want. I do know that I want something that is expandable, preferably with self contained extensions, but I’ll deal with leaves if I have to. I am looking forward to hosting dinner parties again!